Five new research projects in collaboration with industry

Jönköping University’s research and education environment within knowledge intensive product realization, SPARK, continues to work for strengthened competitiveness among the manufacturing companies in the region and the rest of Sweden. At the beginning of next year, five new research projects will be launched with funding from the Swedish Knowledge Foundation.

The purpose of SPARK is to contribute to increased competitiveness among Swedish companies by supporting them in the development of products and processes with a higher knowledge content. The environment is being developed in cooperation with the Knowledge Foundation, and is a long-term initiative aiming at a complete research and education environment.

Last week, the Knowledge Foundation decided to give Jönköping University funding for the five research projects within SPARK, for which the university had applied for funding for 2018. All the projects are built on close collaboration with the industry. All in all, 18 companies will participate in the projects, almost half of them being situated in the Jönköping region.

“We are very happy for the continued confidence that the Knowledge Foundation is giving Jönköping University and SPARK. The new projects offer further opportunities for us to produce valuable knowledge, which will strengthen the industry and our region, together with the companies. Each project also contributes to the development of the university’s competence and educational activities,” says Mats Jackson, programme manager of SPARK.

The upcoming projects cover a broad spectrum and address several urgent challenges faced by Swedish industry. The project InnOvate, for example, will study prerequisites for how manufacturing SMEs can work with renewal and innovation and at the same time maintain an efficient and competitive production.

In another project, TopCut, the researchers and their industrial partners are aiming at a more efficient process of topology optimization, a method that many companies use to create lighter and stronger products and simultaneously minimize the material consumption.

”Continuous knowledge development and innovation are necessary means of competition for Swedish industry today. These types of research projects, based on co-production, are directly useful for the companies and at the same time they strengthen research and education environments at the universities”, says Madelene Sandström, CEO of the Knowledge Foundation.

The Knowledge Foundation contributes with approximately 19 MSEK distributed among the five projects. The participating companies in each project will contribute with resources in the form of working hours and together they will put in the same amount as the Knowledge Foundation.